00:00Mr Speaker, China is the second biggest economy in the world, including Hong Kong.
00:06It's our third biggest trading partner, supporting 370,000 British jobs,
00:12and it is an undeniable presence in global affairs.
00:17It would be impossible to safeguard our national interests without engaging with this geopolitical reality.
00:24Yet we inherited a policy from the previous government, not of engagement with China,
00:32but hiding away and sticking their heads in the sand.
00:37While our allies developed a more sophisticated approach, they let the UK fall behind.
00:44We became an outlier.
00:47Of my three predecessors, none held a single meeting with President Xi.
00:52For eight years, no British Prime Minister visited China.
00:57Eight years of missed opportunities.
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